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December 2012, Issue 7

Editorial ..................................................................... 1

In memoriam – Gerhard Seldacek ........................... 3

Integration of adaptation to climate change into standards .................................................................. 4

Workshop on the implementation of the Eurocodes in Albania ...................................................................... 5

fib Model Code 2010 ................................................ 6

Eurocodes seminar in Montenegro .......................... 7

fib International Symposium – Focus on sustainability .................................................................................. 8

News from JRC ........................................................ 9

Editorial The first European Directive on public procurement was published in 1971, but its practical application concerning the calculation of civil engineering works proved to be very difficult, the reason being a clause forbidding, for a public tender, the rejection of a tender for the reason that this tender was based on design standards in force in a country different from the country where the construction works was to be built. For that reason, it was decided in 1976 to undertake the development of European structural design codes, mainly based on studies carried out by international scientific associations, which could be widely recognised for the judgement of tenders.

In the early 80s, the first documents called Eurocodes were published as provisional standards under the responsibility of the Commission of the European Communities. After lengthy international inquiries and after the adoption of the Single European Act (1986), an Agreement between the Commission and the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) concerning the work on Eurocodes for the structural design of building and civil engineering works was adopted in 1989. The development of the Eurocodes was transferred to CEN in 1990 with a link to the Construction Product Directive (CPD). CEN decided to publish the Eurocodes first as provisional European standards (ENVs), and then as European standards EN. The conversion of ENV Eurocodes into EN Eurocodes started in 1998 after agreement of all

Member States.

EN 1990: Basis of Structural Design, was published by CEN on 24th April 2002 with its Annexes A1 (design of buildings), B, C and D. This Eurocode was the result of the evolution of Part 1-1 of ENV 1991 at the ENV stage: it became EN 1990, the Eurocode of Eurocodes. Continuing education and teaching in universities and engineering schools started seriously after the publication of this first EN Eurocode. Independently of national workshops, international actions (training sessions and workshops) were mainly organized by the European Commission (via JRC) and the main technical and scientific international associations, inside and outside the EU.

From 1996 and 2010, I gave personally lectures on Eurocodes in Lebanon, at the St. Joseph University, on the basis of the reliability theory. I taught the Eurocodes in Tunisia, at the University of Civil Engineering (ENIT), from 2004 to 2008.

Before the publication of EN 1990, the first international conference devoted to Eurocodes (ENV stage) was organized in Switzerland (Davos) in 1992 by IABSE with more than 500 participants. Very quickly after this conference, an international workshop was organized by the Commission in Brussels on 25th June 1992 (“Examples of structures designed with Eurocodes”), to explain the objectives of the Eurocodes and the organization of their development. In 1996, IABSE organized an international colloquium in the Netherlands (“Basis of design and actions on structures – Background and application of Eurocode 1”, Delft, 27-29 March 1996).

The second very important conference was held in Malta on 21-23 March, 2001, entitled “Safety, risk and reliability – Trends in engineering”. Many contributions included background information on Eurocodes.

A workshop was organized directly by the Commission in Barbados (lectures given by Prof. M. Fardis and myself) on 20-22 February 2003 to

The newsletter of CEN/TC 250 is available at http://eurocodes.jrc.ec.europa.eu

Editors

Jean-Armand Calgaro, Chairman of CEN/TC 250 Georgios Tsionis, University of Patras

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convince engineers and experts to adopt and implement Eurocode 8 and, more generally, the whole set of Eurocodes. On 11th and 12th October 2003, an international conference was organized in Algiers on “Risk management and European Standards”, where the EN Eurocodes were already mentioned in several contributions.

On 16th to 22nd May 2004, I taught the Eurocodes, and mainly Eurocode 2, in Vietnam (the first three days in Hanoi and the following three days in Ho Chi Minh City) in two universities, for students, professors and engineers, with a participation of engineers and professors from Cambodia.

On 13th–17th June 2005, several presentations of Eurocodes 0, 1 and 2 were given in Turkey (Ankara) by Prof. M. Fardis, Dr. Bin Zhao and myself, in the framework of an EU MEDA programme “Support to the quality infrastructure in Turkey”. In 2006, I gave lectures on the Eurocodes in Senegal (Dakar) from 7th to 8th December 2006, in Algeria (Tlemcen) from 18th to 19th November and in Italy (Varese) on 27-29 November 2006 “Eurocodes, Building the future in the Euro-Mediterranean area”.

Then, the beginning of the organization of important workshops on the use and implementation of Eurocodes can be underlined.

Year 2007

o “Structural robustness” symposium, Sart Tilman University, Liège, Belgium, 5 February

Year 2008

o “Eurocodes - Background and applications - A dissemination of information for training” workshop organized by the European Commission (JRC), Brussels, Belgium, 18-20 February

o “Engineering science and development of Maghreb – Structural durability and Eurocode 8 – Principles and application in France” workshop, Hammamet, Tunisia, 28-30 March

o “Risk in civil engineering and Eurocodes” workshop, Brussels University, Belgium, 9 April

o “Eurocodes – A tool for building safety and reliability enhancement” workshop organized by the European Commission (JRC), Moscow, Russia, 9-10 October

o “The new structural Eurocodes” workshop organized by LNEC and APEE (Associaçao Portuguesa des Enghenieria de Estruturas), Lisbon, Portugal, 26 November

Year 2009

o “EN 1996 - Design of masonry structures” workshop organized by the European Commission (JRC), Brussels, Belgium, 2-3 April

o “The Eurocodes, general overview – Past, present

and future” workshop organised by the European Commission, Bangkok, Thailand, 27-28 April

o “Eurocodes : structure, basic concepts and further development” workshop, Chisinau, Moldova, 3-5 November 2009

Year 2010

o “The Eurocodes: a technical overview of current status and plans for evolution of the codes”, witihn the Russian Federation – European Commission Regulatory Dialogue, Construction Sub-Group, Moscow, Russia, 3-4 March

o “The BSI Eurocodes launch party”, London, UK, 31 March

o “2nd international workshop on evaluation of Eurocode 7”, Pavia, Italy, 12-14 April

o Joint IABSE-fib conference “Codes in structural engineering”, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 3-5 May

o “Dynamics, structural and earthquake engineering: research and practice” workshop, JRC Ispra, Italy, 16 July

o “Fire design of structures” workshop, Luxembourg, 27-28 July

o “Bridge design to Eurocodes” workshop, Vienna, Austria, 4-6 October

o “The first forum on GCC Unified Building Code” international workshop, Doha, Qatar, 11-13 October

o “Eurocodes: training the trainers” workshop organized by the European Commission (JRC) in cooperation with the Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia, 9-10 December

o Bratislava, Slovakia, 15-16 November

Year 2011

o “Eurocodes and the Egyptian construction industry – harmonized European Standards for construction in Egypt”, organized by BSI in cooperation with EOS (Egyptian Standard Organization), Cairo, Egypt, 25-27 January

o “Seismic design of buildings – Workshop with worked examples” organised by LNEC and JRC, Lisbon, Portugal, 10-11 February

o “ISGSR 2011 Geotechnical safety and risk” international conference, Munich, Germany, 2-3 June

o “Design of concrete structures and bridges using Eurocodes” international workshop, Bratislava, Slovakia, 12-13 September

o “Implementation of Eurocodes in Georgia” workshop, Tbilisi, Georgia, 26-27 September

o “Design of concrete buildings with Eurocode 2” workshop, Brussels, Belgium, 20-21 October

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o “Science and technology for the development of Maghreb”, Rabat, Morocco, 8-9 December

Year 2012

o Invited presentation of the Eurocodes, Tirana, Albania, 15-16 May

o “Achieving highest safety and technical quality of construction”, Twinning Montenegro MN 10 IB FI 01, Podgorica, Montenegro, 9-10 July

o “Bridge design with Eurocodes” workshop, JRC Ispra, Italy,1-2 October

o International workshop on the reduction of seismic risk, Chlef / El Asnan, Algeria,10-11 October

o “Structural fire design” workshop with worked examples, Brussels, Belgium, 27-28 November

o 2nd contact with the Ministry of Environment, Podgorica, Montenegro, 10-14 December.

Independently of international actions for the promotion of Eurocodes, several countries have adopted and implemented a few, or the whole set, of Eurocodes as national standards.

In conclusion, the Eurocodes are internationally recognized as reference standards. My wish is that their architecture and content evolves during the next years, but without revolution and without changes in their global architecture. They are the unshakable basis of our present technical culture in civil engineering.

I wish you a very outstanding New Year 2013.

Jean-Armand Calgaro

Chairman of CEN/TC 250

In memoriam – Gerhard Seldacek Gerhard Sedlacek 1939 - 2012

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr.-Ing. h.c. Gerhard Sedlacek, formerly professor for structural steelwork at RWTH Aachen University, died at the age of 72 on 1 February 2012. The profession and his great circle of friends mourn together with his family the loss of a great person, a reliable friend, an outstanding scientist and a talented engineer. We shall keep him in worthy remembrance.

Gerhard Sedlacek was born in Rheinhausen in North-Rhine Westphalia, also grew up and went to school there. He passed his university entrance examination in 1959 at the Friedrich Krupp Grammar School in Duisburg. It is no surprise that these surroundings left their mark on the later steel engineer.

After leaving school, he studied construction engineering at Karlsruhe TH (now known as Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), where he completed his diploma examination in the specialist field of “structural engineering” in 1964. His tutors were renowned professors with names like Steinhardt and Franz. During the next five years, he worked as

scientific assistant to Prof. Roik at the Institute of Structural Steelwork, Berlin TU, and gained his doctorate there in 1968 with a thesis entitled “Systematic presentation of the bending and rotation process for prismatic bars with thin-wall cross-sections taking into account deformation of the section”.

Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Sedlacek began his practical activities in 1969 as a “structural designer” in MAN’s Bridges Department in Gustavsburg, where he quickly gained promotion. During the years 1971 to 1976 he was head of the Bridges Department at Krupp Industrie- & Stahlbau in Rheinhausen. It was in 1976 that Gerhard Sedlacek was appointed professor at RWTH Aachen University’s Chair of Structural Steelwork.

His decades of pioneering scientific work in his actual field of teaching, structural steelwork, but also other areas of construction and indeed other areas of engineering, e.g. the automotive industry, have left a lasting impression. For example, he was intensively involved in the development of loading assumptions, wind engineering, earthquake safety, construction materials, structural glazing and, in particular, new materials such as polymers and ultra-lightweight materials and the ways in which they could be used in practice.

While making sure that his Chair of Steel & Lightweight Metal Construction continued to move forwards, Prof. Sedlacek also ran two consultancy practices in Aachen and Berlin successfully and set up the Centre for Metallic Design (ZMB). The latter is a collaboration between internationally renowned research establishments and contains all the facilities necessary for large-scale tests.

As professor emeritus, too, he continued to work untiringly for his university, the ZMB and his two

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consultancies. He was for many years a member of the North Rhine-Westphalia Academy of Sciences, the German Structural Steelwork Committee (DASt), many standards committees, DIN mirror and coordination committees, and CEN/TC 250 “Structural Eurocodes”.

With intrepid optimism, he supported the German chairmanship of TC 250 for many years and therefore made a huge contribution to successfully turning the European pre-norm of this first set of harmonized European rules for the conceptual and detailed design of structures into a European standard. As a committed European, he was very keen on working closely with the European Commission, especially with the JRC in Ispra. He therefore helped to make sure that there was and still is extensive support for implementing the Eurocodes in the Member States of the EU, and that the codes are further simplified, harmonized and developed, and used internationally. His painstaking attention to detail and his own brand of tenacity ensured that he also achieved the urgently needed coordination between the Eurocodes and the multitude of European standards for construction products. The Eurocodes are to be introduced in Germany as technical construction provisions in this year; unfortunately, he will no longer be able to enjoy that success.

Gerhard Sedlacek also played a leading role in the European Convention for Constructional Steelwork (ECCS). He was a member of several commissions of this important technical and scientific organization for many years, and was the chairman of TC 1 “Safety” and the Technical Management Board for many years. He had been the director of the European Research Division since 2007.

Like no other, Gerhard Sedlacek promoted building with steel over decades. It was in 2003 that the University of Liège awarded him an honorary doctorate for his services to research and teaching. The German Structural Steelwork Association (DSTV) presented him with the “German Structural Steelwork Award” in 2004 in recognition of outstanding achievements that further industrial building with steel through the ongoing development of technology or the improvement of economic efficiency.

But despite all that, Prof. Sedlacek’s priorities were his research and teaching duties as a university lecturer.

His support for the next generation of academics in Aachen was legendary – a fact verified by the remarkable number of high-calibre dissertations that he personally supervised, the large number of co-supervisor roles he took on and the broad range of scientific work carried out by the Chair and in the ZMB. His contributions have been invaluable to the world of steel construction and many other disciplines. They have led to considerable progress in many fields of engineering.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr.-Ing. h.c. Gerhard Sedlacek was an extraordinary personality in a high scientific position who enjoyed great national and international esteem.

Thanks to his outstanding professional skills, his impressive general knowledge and refreshing manner plus his inspiring motivation and untiring commitment, he was able to unite the academic and practical worlds in a particularly unique way.

Gerhard Sedlacek will remain a role model for us. We are grateful that we were able to share in part of his life.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Horst J. Bossenmayer Former CEN/TC 250 Chairman

Integration of adaptation to climate change into standards Focus on the transport, energy and buildings/construction sectors, 24 October 2012, Brussels

The 2009 White Paper1 on adapting to climate change raised the need to increase the resilience of production systems and physical infrastructure to climate change.

The European Commission is preparing an EU Adaptation Strategy, to be adopted in Spring 2013. One of the elements the Commission is considering to include in the Strategy is the role of standards for adaptation to climate change.

The Commission is cooperating closely with the CEN-CENELEC management centre and industry stakeholders. A workshop for standards in the transport sector has already been organised in June 2012 and received positive feedback.

Therefore a follow-up workshop was organised, bringing together stakeholders and experts on standards in the transport, energy and buildings/construction sector.

The objectives of the workshop were to:

o get together experts from the three sectors and identify those priority standards that should include resilience to the adverse effects of climate change;

o discuss priority criteria for selecting relevant standards;

o identify cross-cutting issues and share good practices;

o support mapping exercise to identify relevant standards for these sectors, currently being set up by CEN-CENELEC and the Commission, for example by identifying and updating on on-going actions for standards at sectoral level.

1 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2009:0147:FIN:EN:PDF

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Workshop on the implementation of the Eurocodes in Albania

A meeting devoted to the process of adoption of the Eurocodes in Albania was organized on the 15th and 16th of May 2012. It was organised in the framework of the Component III entitled “Review and improvement of building codes in Albania” of the “Albania Disaster Risk Mitigation and Adaptation Project – AL-DRMAP”, supported by the World Bank and monitored by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport as well as the General Directorate of Civil Emergency of the Ministry of Interior of Albania.

The meeting was organised at the Hotel “Mondial” and at the Civil Engineering Faculty in Tirana by the construction and consulting company UTS-01, whose administrator is Mr Markel Baballëku.

Poster of the meeting

As a special guest, Prof. Jean-Armand Calgaro, Chairman of CEN/Technical Committee 250 “Structural Eurocodes”, attended this event.

Special participants in the meeting were:

o Dr Ernest Noka, Deputy Minister of Public Works and Transport;

o Mr Alfred Olli, Director of the General Directorate of Civil Emergency, Ministry of Interior;

o Mr Bashkim Muça, Director of the General Directorate of Standardization, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Energy;

o Mr Ilir Qerfozi, Director of the Construction Politics Directorate, Ministry of Public Works and Transport;

o Eng. Luigj Aleksi, Chairman of the Board of the Albanian Builders Association;

o Eng. Maksim Muçi, Executive Director of the Albanian Builders Association.

The meeting was also attended by a considerable number of structural designers of various construction companies, as well as professors, assistants and graduate students, mostly from the Civil Engineering Faculty of Tirana.

Key speakers were Prof. Jean-Armand Calgaro, Prof. Niko Pojani, Markel Baballëku, both professors at the Civil Engineering Faculty of Tirana, experts of the UTS-01 consulting company and Peter I. Yanev, expert of the World Bank.

First day, 15 May

Prof. Pojani opened the meeting, by presenting firstly the special guests and participants, and describing the work accomplished by the UTS-01 company in the framework of the above-mentioned project. After that, the meeting continued in two sessions, with two key-note lectures by Prof. Calgaro:

1. Eurocodes: a global view - present and future;

2. Eurocodes in use: examples.

At the end of the first session, Mr. Ernest Noka held a short speech, appreciating the work done from UTS-01 and expressing the full engagement of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and of the Government of Albania, in order for the process of adoption of the structural Eurocodes in Albania to continue successfully, based on EU standards. He had also a short discussion with Prof. Calgaro.

Audience at the auditorium of the “Mondial” Hotel

Mr. Yanev, the expert from the World Bank, held a presentation on this day of the meeting, regarding issues of the AL-DRMAP’s Component IV, entitled “Structural

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engineering for earthquake risk assessment tool for home owners and SME’s”.

The last presentation was by Prof. Pojani and Mr Baballëku, which described the final reports and products by UTS-01. The training material prepared by UTS-01 and entitled “Seismic design rules for concrete buildings based on Eurocode 8 - Application: analysis and design of a concrete building” was also presented.

Second day, 16 May

The meeting went on with two presentations by Prof. Calgaro:

1. Eurocodes: basic principles;

2. General principles of structural reliability in the Eurocodes.

Prof. Niko Pojani and Prof. Jean-Armand Calgaro at the Civil Engineering Faculty in Tirana

During his stay in Albania, Prof. Calgaro paid a visit to the Faculty of Civil Engineering, where he was received by the dean, Prof. Andrea Maliqari, and in the Epoka University, where he was received by the dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Prof. Ahmet Oztas.

Jean-Armand Calgaro

Chairman of CEN/TC 250

fib Model Code 2010 The approval and publication of the fib Model Code 2010 (MC2010) as fib Bulletins 65 and 66 is an historic milestone nearly ten years in the making. Seven years after fib Special Activity Group 5, “New Model Code”, began its work, the first complete draft was published in 2010, which served as the basis for review and extensive comments by the Commissions and National Delegations of fib.

Structural concrete is more than a continuously developing material. It also represents a remarkable development in design concepts and strategies. Requirements for concrete structures

have often been formulated as follows: concrete structures should be safe, serviceable, durable, economic and aesthetic.

Today, several further requirements or expectations regarding concrete structures have to be met, for example: they should be robust enough to avoid progressive collapse, should need only minimal maintenance during their specified service life, should allow the use of high performance materials, should provide protection against accidents, should provide barriers against or following hazards, should be designed with due attention to dismantlement, should support sustainability in all possible ways, and in addition, provide adequate fire and earthquake resistance and be environmentally compatible.

The objectives of MC2010 are to:

(a) serve as a basis for future codes for concrete structures and

(b) present new developments with regard to concrete structures, structural materials and new ideas in order to achieve optimum behaviour.

MC2010 includes the whole life cycle of a concrete structure, from design and construction to conservation (assessment, maintenance, strengthening) and dismantlement, in one code for buildings, bridges and other civil engineering structures. Design is largely based on performance requirements. The chapter on materials is particularly extended with new types of concrete and reinforcement (such as fibres and non-metallic reinforcements).

MC2010, like the previous Model Codes, not only specifies requirements but also gives corresponding explanations in a separate column of the document. Additionally, MC2010 is supported by background documents that have already been (or will soon be) published in fib Bulletins and journal articles.

MC2010 is now the most comprehensive code on concrete structures, including their complete life cycle: conceptual design, dimensioning, construction, conservation and dismantlement. It is expected to become an important document for both national and international code committees, practitioners and researchers.

www.fib-international.org

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Eurocodes seminar in Montenegro

9 - 11 July 2012

Starting of Montenegro negotiations to join the European Union requires harmonization with EU regulations in all areas, including construction. The overall aim of the Eurocodes is to set up a uniform basis for technical documentation in order to specify building contracts. The Eurocodes are designed as a tool to remove barriers stemming from the existence of different national regulations, thereby contributing to the EU policies regarding the free trade of goods and services in the field of construction.

In the framework of IPA 2010, the project “Achieving the highest safety and technical quality of construction” officially started by signing the twinning contract in April 2012.

Within this project, the seminar “Implementing Eurocodes in Europe” was organised at the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism of Montenegro. The aim was to present experience from European countries, as well as the planned project activities to beneficiaries and interested professionals.

The speakers of the seminar “Implementing Eurocodes in Europe”

The seminar was opened by Ms Tatjana Vujošević, the coordinator for monitoring and development at the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, who pointed out that the seminar was important for sharing the extensive experience of EU countries in the implementation of the Eurocodes, which would be very useful to Montenegro during harmonization of standards in the construction area.

Mr Tariq Nawaz, RTA, presented the project and practice in Eurocodes implementation in Great Britain. The presentation listed the problems, as well as challenges that Great Britain encountered in 2003 during the Eurocodes implementation, especially due to the need for significant investment from both industry and government. Interested parties that were involved in the process were the National Standardization Body, engineers and designers, academic community, non-technical users (clients and the insurance sector),

regulators (central and local government), software developers, etc.

A presentation was also given on the activities and roles of other actors in the process of Eurocodes implementation, and on the importance of establishing a steering committee with a role to oversee the process, flag up the areas of concern and insure that deadlines are met.

Prof. Jean-Armand Calgaro, Chairman of CEN/TC 250 “Structural Eurocodes”, gave an overview of the Eurocodes and of the development of the current generation of Eurocodes, as well as the national experience from France.

Mr Jochen Fornather, head of committee at the Austrian Standards Institute, presented the contents of national standards implementing the Eurocodes, as well as the relevant Austrian experience.

Mr Jean-Michel Remy, from AFNOR, shared the experience from France in Eurocodes implementation. A presentation was given on the related challenges, aspects of standardization and rules, as well as key issues for implementation (regulations, standards and national practice).

Mr Wolfgang Lentsch, legal expert, gave an overview of the public procurement system.

The presentations were followed by a questions and answers session.

The audience of the seminar

The seminar was attended by DEU representative and project beneficiaries, i.e. representatives from ISME, Ministry of Interior – sector for emergency management, Seismological Observatory, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Republic Fund for Geological Research and from GeoProject Ltd.

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fib International Symposium – Focus on sustainability

The 2012 fib international symposium “Focus on sustainability” took place at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, KTH) on 11-13 June 2012. In keeping with its theme of sustainability, the event was relatively modest in scale and ambition. With 289 participants, the organisers' targets were met and the event was a clear success.

The opening session on the 11th of June began with greetings from Johan Silfwerbrand, chairman of the Organizing Committee and deputy chair of the Scientific Committee. The delegates were then cordially welcomed by KTH president Peter Gudmundson, who gave an overview of the university, Sweden's first and largest polytechnic, and its research and teaching activities.

fib president György L. Balazs took the floor to convey his own greetings and to present a number of notable aspects of Swedish culture and history, including several little-known Swedish-held records. He also drew the participants’ attention to the fact that Stockholm was the venue of the historic 1997 CEB Plenary Session, where the 31st CEB General Assembly approved the merger with FIP to create fib.

Johan Silfwerbrand, chairman of the Organizing Committee, and György Balazs, fib President

The fib Medals of Merit were presented to Joao Almeida and Jean-Marie Crèmer, while the fib Honorary Membership was presented to Andrzej Ajdukiewicz.

The keynote speakers on Monday and Tuesday elaborated on the symposium theme of “Concrete structures for sustainable community” with the presentations:

o A new concept on concrete sustainability for sustainable society, Koji Sakai, Kagawa University, Japan, convener of fib Special Activity Group 8 on the fib Sustainability Initiative;

o On the way to sustainable concrete structures by defined performance concepts, Joost Walraven, TU Delft, Nethrerlands, convener of fib Special Activity Group 5 on the New Model Code;

o American activities towards development of a unified front to advance green and resilient

concrete, Jim Wight, University of Michigan, ACI president;

o Cement and concrete within the concept of sustainable development, Christoph Müller, VDZ, Germany;

o Concrete durability and sustainability - they go together: the Abu Dhabi step tunnel as an example, Dr. Carola Edvardsen, COWI A/S.

The parallel technical sessions over three days covered a range of topics related to sustainability, including design, sustainable concrete materials, case studies and aesthetic issues, carbonation and carbon uptake and recycling, sustainable concrete production, rheology and flow, LCC and LCA, durability, alternative binders, thermal mass, energy storage and fire protection, repair, renovation and upgrading, concrete pavements.

The social programme included a reception on Monday evening at the renowned Vasa Ship Museum, where participants could take part in a guided tour presenting the history and characteristics of the 384-year-old warship prior to enjoying drinks and sandwiches alongside the ancient vessel. The memorable symposium dinner on Tuesday evening began with a scenic voyage by boat from Stockholm to the Vaxholm castle, where participants were welcomed by the music of a jazz trio and learned about the history of the strategically-placed fortress. The dinner was then served inside the castle, where the musical accompaniment continued.

Although the symposium concluded on the 13th of June with presentations by the organisers of the next year's fib symposium in Tel Aviv and the 2014 congress in Mumbai, participants could stay on an additional day to join the technical visit in downtown Stockholm, focusing on the “Citybanan” railway tunnel, or the free seminar at the symposium venue on the Swedish activities on sustainability, organised by the Council for Sustainable Development of the Swedish Concrete Association.

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News from JRC

The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) pursues its continuous support for implementation, harmonisation and further development of the Eurocodes by maintaining its informatics tools that facilitate the practical implementation of Eurocodes, fostering training and promotion of the Eurocodes within and outside Europe, producing policy support documents and technical reports and facilitating further harmonisation works.

The implementation of the Eurocodes is now at a key stage of national implementation where almost all Member States have reached or are approaching the final phase of the predefined roadmap of implementation. An analysis of the progress in the implementation of the Eurocodes has been performed based on the information provided by the members of the ENC group in 2010. This information is naturally outdated. Therefore JRC has communicated with the members of ENC group to collect updated information regarding the recent implementation status of the Eurocodes. Soon after receiving complete information from Member States, JRC will update the status of Eurocodes implementation throughout Europe and will present it on Eurocodes website.

European Commission website on Eurocodes

The Eurocodes official website (http://eurocodes.jrc.ec.europa.eu) is a common platform for dissemination of information regarding the activities and events related to the Eurocodes as well as the main source of background information about the Eurocodes. It is maintained by JRC with updated information regarding the recent training and awareness events, publications and other material on the Eurocodes.

JRC recently initiated a campaign to collect the references of the guidance materials (books, manuals, informative leaflets, etc.) on the Eurocodes and information about state-of-the-art structures designed to the Eurocodes. The collected information will be published in the Eurocodes website to facilitate the use and further harmonisation studies on Eurocodes.

The preparatory studies which will form the basis of a new version of the website with updated info, in particular in line with the transition from the Construction Products Directive (CPD) to the Construction Products Regulation (CPR) era have already started and the new-look of the platform is foreseen to be published within the next year.

Centralised Eurocodes Helpdesk

The Centralised Eurocodes Helpdesk (https://ndphelpdesk.jrc.ec.europa.eu) is a platform for maintenance of the Eurocodes which creates links between the national standardization bodies (NSBs), national authorities, CEN/TC 250 and the European Commission. It is developed and maintained by JRC and its official opening was announced in the CEN/TC 250

Coordination Group meeting in Madrid on 15-16 November 2012. JRC has received the contact info of most of the NSBs and created user profiles both for NSBs and CEN/TC 250 Subcommittees. The task for JRC hereafter will be ensuring the smooth operation of the platform for its users.

Nationally Determined Parameters (NDPs) database

The Nationally Determined Parameters database (NDPs database) is a mean of notification by the Member States to the European Commission of the national preference on the parameters of Eurocodes. JRC maintains the NDPs database and monitors the status of uploading to facilitate the studies on further development and harmonisation of the Eurocodes. Within the second semester of 2012, Hungary has officially registered to the database and already started uploading its parameters. With the registration of Hungary, now all EU-27 and EFTA Member States are registered to the database. Two candidate countries, namely Iceland and Turkey, are expected to register within near future. JRC has established positive contacts with Iceland and expects to receive nominations for registration. The rate of uploading is increasing and approximately 30% of the total expected NDPs have been uploaded. Some countries have already completed or almost completed their uploading (i.e. Czech Republic-100%, Ireland-99.5%, Norway-95%, Romania-92%, Slovenia-89%) as of October 2012.

Preliminary analysis of the available data shows that the mean percentage of acceptance of the NDPs’ recommended value is around 74%.The highest percentages of acceptance of the recommended values are for EN 1992 (~78%), EN 1993 (~86%) and EN 1994 (~87%). As a special case study, JRC performed a statistical analysis for a selected set of countries and a group of NDPs on EN 1992 Part 1-1. The results of the analysis indicate that although the acceptance of recommended values are higher for this specific set of NDPs (approx. 81%), the tendency to accept the recommended values should be investigated in detail by experts considering each country’s preference. The details of the analysis carried out were presented in the 3rd International Workshop “Design of concrete structures using Eurocodes” held in Vienna on 20-21 September 2012 (A. V. Pinto, B. Acun, A. Athanasopoulou and M. Poljansek, “Achievements in Eurocodes implementation. Where do we stand?”).

Training and promotion of the Eurocodes

JRC is preparing and editing reports containing the practical examples presented in Eurocodes workshops with worked examples as well as scientific and technical reports received from CEN/TC 250 Subcommittees with the approval of CEN/TC 250 to be published in order to facilitate the implementation and use of the Eurocodes.

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The reports that are currently edited by JRC and will soon be published on the Eurocodes website are:

o Choice of steel material to avoid brittle fracture for hollow-section structures, by M. Feldmann, B. Eichler, B. Kühn, N. Stranghöner, W. Dahl, P. Langenberg, J. Kouhi, R. Pope, G. Sedlacek, P. Ritakallio, G. Iglesias, R.S. Puthli, J.A. Packer and J. Krampen

o Choice of steel material for bridge bearings to avoid brittle fracture, by M. Feldmann, B. Eichler, G. Sedlacek, W. Dahl, P. Langenberg, C. Butz, H. Leendertz, G. Hanswille

o The evolution of Eurocodes for bridge design, by S. Denton, G. Tsionis

o Eurocode 2- Design of Concrete Buildings – with worked examples (still under editing).

As a continuation of the series of training and dissemination events, another workshop dedicated to the fire design of buildings with Eurocodes was organized by JRC in collaboration with CEN/TC 250 Horizontal Group Fire (Chairman Bin Zhao). The workshop “Eurocodes: Structural Fire Design” with worked examples was held in Brussels on 27-28 November 2012 and the sessions presented the fire resistance assessment of structures according to the Eurocodes. In each session, a specific structural material (i.e. steel, concrete, masonry, etc) was addressed with

principles and design methods followed by worked example(s). Approximately 130 national delegates from all around Europe registered for the workshop. All the presentations from the workshop will be published in the Eurocodes website as soon as they are available.

Promotion of the Eurocodes to third countries – Russia

JRC hosted a seminar on “Bridge design with Eurocodes” on 1-2 October 2012 organised as a part of EU-Russian Regulatory Dialogue: Construction Sector Subsector. The seminar was attended by a Russian delegation (consisting of experts in bridge design and standardization community, heads/technical managers of design departments of important Russian companies, representatives from federal highway agency), DG ENTR, CEN MC, Chairman of CEN/TC 250 and European experts (CEN/TC 250 Horizontal Group Bridges,

Chairmen of CEN/TC 250 Subcommittees) and by the JRC-ELSA staff involved in activities related to the Eurocodes. The seminar presentations were delivered by EU Eurocodes experts (mainly CEN/TC 250 members) and by experts from the Russian delegation. The presentations of this seminar can be found on the Eurocodes website.

The main focus of the seminar was to provide information on policy of Eurocodes implementation to the Russian delegates and to address the aspects of Eurocodes where it demonstrates the innovation

in design. JRC-ELSA also presented its activities in support of the implementation, harmonization and further development of the Eurocodes. During the seminar, both sides of the delegations had fruitful discussions regarding both technical content of the Eurocodes and administrative issues related to implementation. The seminar was concluded with recommendations for the future work of the EU-Russia Regulatory Dialogue: Construction Sector Subgroup. It was followed by a round-table meeting of EU-Russia Dialogue: Construction Sector Subgroup on the 3rd of October 2012, with participation of the group members only.

Evolution of Eurocodes to additional fields of design

JRC-ELSA is participating the works of CEN/BT Working Group 206, which is in charge of carrying out a strategic review of the CEN portfolio of construction standards to identify the potential for improving the collective contribution to sustainable construction. The activities related to the Eurocodes and supporting the extension of the European Standards for construction to additional fields (i.e. in the areas of energy efficiency, sustainability, etc) are the main focus of this collaboration.

In this line, JRC hosted the plenary meeting of CEN/BT WG206 “CEN contribution to the EC Lead Market Initiative on sustainable construction” in Ispra on 11-12 September 2012 and gave a presentation on the INSPIRE Directive and related actions to the members of WG 206. The main focus of the meeting was the discussion regarding the future activities (possible new Mandate) with the focus on sustainability/sustainable construction, including aspects related to climate change.

For further information contact eurocodes@jrc.ec.europa.eu, or visit the JRC website on Eurocodes http://eurocodes.jrc.ec.europa.eu.

A. Pinto, M. Poljansek, B. Acun and A. Athanasopoulou Joint Research Centre of the European Commission